DACE AND CHUB. 311 



First. Take the fly by the bend in the position sho\vn, with the 

 eye turned upwards (fig. i) ; pass two or three inches of the end 

 of the gut casting-line, B (previously well moistened) through the 

 eye, towards the point of the hook, and then, letting go the fly alto- 

 gether, double back the gut and make a single slip-knot, C, round 

 the centre link, D. : 



Secondly. Draw the slip-knot tight enough only to admit of its 

 just passing freely over the hook-eye, and then run it down to, and 

 over, the said eye, when on gradually tightening (pulling) the central 

 link the 'jam knot' is automatically formed. 



In addition to its extreme simplicity, by which fly 'pro- 

 tectors ' and all other adventitious aids are entirely dispensed 

 with, this method of fastening has the advantage of very great 

 rapidity — I find I can make the attachment of the fly to the 

 casting-hne complete in thirty-five seconds. 



The duration of the natural 'life' of an artificial fly— espe- 

 cially of a large fly — attached to one of my turned-down eyed- 

 hooks by the 'jam knot,' is at least as 3 or 4 to i in comparison 

 with a fly lapped on to gut in the ordinary way. Indeed I have 

 used the same chub-fly throughout the whole of a hard day's 

 fishing, and it has been still in ' working order ' at the end of 

 it. Two days before writing these lines I thus used one fly 

 from morning till dusk, talking seventeen chub with it, and 

 whipping under boughs nearly the whole time. 



Even more important, however, than the foregoing advan- 

 tages, great as they undeniably are, is, in my opinion, the 

 freedom enjoyed by fly-fishers who use eyed hooks from the 

 necessity of attaching fresh links of gut — always dry, often glitter- 

 ing from newness, and generally of a different substance from 

 tlie rest of the casting line — at the very point where extreme fine- 

 ness, harmony of colour, and equality of taper and thickness are 

 most desirable.- Then again there is the saving of all subsequent 

 loss of time — not to say of temper — in * sucking,' or otherwise 

 moistening, the newly added gut-hnk, without which it cannot 

 beusedunlessattheriskofflickingoffthefly at the first cast. .. . 



I claim to present the remedy for these manifold and ad- 

 mitted evils in a form at once so complete and simple as to 



